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My son was sitting there, playing Minecraft and explaining how much he enjoyed the game...and then he said something (loudly!) that I'm sure I never taught him... Lava, trapped, that sort of stuff. I'm resisting only because I have too much other stuff to do to start playing a game I know will superglue me to the computer.

I tried it awhile back. Addictive, but repetitive. I didn't have the patience to build grand things, considering I never found anything in my hollowed out mountain but dirt. Digging will be much easier on an iPad.

Anyone else get suckered in? This stuff is addictive. Kind of mad at myself for dying on my way back to my fort with the first gold I found.

Well, I finally watched a video and felt the temptation to try it myself. I did spend 4 hours on it straight, but I wasn't entirely enamored with the gameplay. Trying to survive seemed like a pain in the ass (every morning I had to do a 50 yd sprint from my front door to escape/lure a spider off my roof) and farming resources (haven't quite got the hang of mining yet) without wrecking the nearby landscape is challenging. I don't wonder if some cooperative multi is the answer here.

I had to rebuild my place twice (frantically) because one of those jerkass ass-plode! dudes kept ninjaing up to me when I working outside. Now it's just Tarantualville (though that, too seems to subsiding). It was awful, too, because after a remodel I had a glass ceiling and the Tarantulas would just spend entire nights staring down at me, taunting me as I worked.

My first house was to, haven't cleaned up the remains yet. Turn around and back out the door looking up and them hit them in the legs as the move to the edge. I had a lip up top and one below so they'd fall of the roof and then the only way to me was up the 1 ramp.

If you place the door from the outside then you can stand on the block the door is on and attack through the door.

My friend and I finally realized why this is so personally appealing. Back in the day we (he) played Ultima Online. A good deal of the core gameplay (harvesting, crafting, exploring, surviving) is very similar. Occasionally we reminisce of the olden days, and lately sometimes mention going back (found out people maintain private serves, some of which remain in early 2000 game-state), but are dissuaded by the time and effort involved (starting from scratch really sucks).

---

I'm finally starting to understand the game. Which makes me realize Laminar must have sunk some serious time in judging from the items in some of his screens.

So far my biggest gripe in the game is lighting - there's just not enough types. The lack of a campfire is completely baffling. Chandeliers would be nice, too (I did note on the wiki that lanterns were added then removed for some reason). Illuminating everything with torches sucks, because it's repetitive and because they're inefficient.

Have you guys found many dungeons. I only started digging down late last night but I'm wondering how rare they are and how difficult they are to spot.

Dungeons or caves? For caves look for openings above ground theres should be a few. Actual dungeons are rare. I hit one because it was connected to this huge cave network. Skeletons, killed me twice before I neutered it, now it's and arrow grinder.

I don't want to spoil this thread, but to say that I'm disappointed in Dakar and Fatty is an understatement.

Originally Posted by The Final Dakar

Be disappointed in Homefront. After Monday night's debacle I'm glad to take a hiatus from the frustration and disappointment.

Truth. 45 minutes without a single match will sour anyone on a game. I plan on trying again this weekend, and honestly, if we still cannot find matches I'm going to sell it back to Gamestop...and I'm dead serious this time. I have a brand new game with a boring single player and a broken multiplayer, what's the point of hanging on? Portal 2 will be out soon enough and this time-sink can hold me until then.

Be disappointed in Homefront. After Monday night's debacle I'm glad to take a hiatus from the frustration and disappointment.

Originally Posted by sek929

Truth. 45 minutes without a single match will sour anyone on a game. I plan on trying again this weekend, and honestly, if we still cannot find matches I'm going to sell it back to Gamestop...and I'm dead serious this time. I have a brand new game with a boring single player and a broken multiplayer, what's the point of hanging on? Portal 2 will be out soon enough and this time-sink can hold me until then.

Truth. 45 minutes without a single match will sour anyone on a game. I plan on trying again this weekend, and honestly, if we still cannot find matches I'm going to sell it back to Gamestop...and I'm dead serious this time. I have a brand new game with a boring single player and a broken multiplayer, what's the point of hanging on?

On topic, I discovered a deep crevasse on the other side of the Tunnel to Nowhere (behind the Majestic Hill featured center left in pic three) and went to town spelunking in it. Feature request: An Altimeter. I think I got down pretty deep, but I'm not sure how far (which is important for mining).

On my second expedition in, I tried to burrow down and create a (slightly) organized descent as I mined. I think I got even deeper than before, but I spent my last 15 min last night mining horizontally because I heard [zombies?] nearby. I don't think it's a dungeon (drat!), but a cavern; I already killed two spiders (one landed on my head) and discovered a skeleton who then fired arrows at me (and I'm not sure how to kill).

On the flip side I'm enjoying laying out roads to all these places I discover. Like I'm civilizing the wilderness (with the benefit of making it easier to navigate). Laying the road to Majestic Hill I also discovered a small hole in the ground right next to a lake. The damn thing is so deep you can't see the bottom. Another adventure awaiting! This game is really rewarding for people who enjoy exploring worlds.

I typically mine down until I hit bedrock. Usually I find enough caves along the way that I can find coal, iron, gold, redstone, diamonds, etc. in the walls, floors, and ceilings.

Well, I haven't started a "real" mine yet (Actually I did start an organized one early on, but that was abandoned as I tried to piece together resources and build my home). Exploring the hillside crevasse was the deepest I got but those things are a mess to spelunk/navigate/climb.

Originally Posted by Laminar

It's easiest to kill the skeletons with the bow and arrow. I always mine gravel whenever I find it to get the flint, because sticks and feathers are easy enough to come by.

I was afraid of that. I may try to suffocate him in sand and gravel.

Originally Posted by Laminar

I actually haven't played the game since I got killed in a random cave somewhere and lost a ton of gold and my diamond pickaxe. More pissed about it than anything else.

Does your stuff just disappear if you're too far from spawn or do you have a limited amount of time to recover it?

I am officially addicted, although i do find it necessary to run this game along side mozilla for the wiki.
Didn't have a lot of time this weekend to play but put together my first "home" after spending two nights in a mini cave i built (trying to find coal so i could see)

Few screens for kicks
The room to the left with the double door is housing the all important bed, fantastic. Also has white (snow cube) walls

That place is pretty gigantic, Bogues. I see you've hung paintings, which outside of the first day, I never even thought of doing. Your house does seem like a haphazard onstruction of cobblestone, stone, and clay(?). Also, I see you have a steel door controlled by switch. Have you tried using a pressure plate? I found it wholly unreliable.

I finally did some exploring this weekend, spurred by a quest to get some Sugar Cane, Clay, and Cactus. I also found a winter biome (Snow and Ice!). This came after several unfortunate encounters with lava that finally caused me to say screw it (good bye clock, I'll miss you). I did manage to find some Obsidian, but I don't have enough diamonds for a pickaxe to mine it.

Stuff takes five minutes to disappear so if you can make it back in time you can pick it up. I try to keep a second minimum set of gear ready to use when dashing back. For me the bow is a critical weapon. I'll AFK in the skeleton grinder I built around the mob spawner when I need more arrows.

F3 will show your coordinates with your Y axis.

I've been fiddling with a map from the Prehistoric Desert generator a distraction to mining or stockpiling torches.

I found obsidian too, but it was under a waterfall so I'm betting its a lava lake. You can make it by poring water on top of lava anyways, no pick req. Just be sure where you want it.

Dakar i've taken your criticism and converted my entire house into pure stone (lots of coal +cobble), looks much better. also added a tree farm close by and I stole your indoor sugar cane factory, good call

Still have not found any "redstone", gold, diamonds. I'm having a hard enough time find iron ore.

Started a rather large tunnel in my house but still have only come away with cobble and coal.

Stuff takes five minutes to disappear so if you can make it back in time you can pick it up. I try to keep a second minimum set of gear ready to use when dashing back. For me the bow is a critical weapon. I'll AFK in the skeleton grinder I built around the mob spawner when I need more arrows.

F3 will show your coordinates with your Y axis.

Thanks.

Originally Posted by BLAZE_MkIV

You need to find some pumpkins for them totems. I'll have to get some screen shots to keep up w/ the jones.

Eh, I don't like how the Jack-o-Lanterns look, not that I've seen pumpkins anyway.

Originally Posted by Kevin Bogues

Still have not found any "redstone", gold, diamonds. I'm having a hard enough time find iron ore.

I find the Iron Ore to be criminally uncommon in this game, particularly for something that is common in so many middle-to-high quality recipes. I was calculating that to make a 50 tiles of track (which isn't a lot of distance) requires over four and half stacks of iron ingots. In all the time I've playing I haven't completed three.

Originally Posted by Kevin Bogues

Started a rather large tunnel in my house but still have only come away with cobble and coal.

My best advice for you is to go exploring and look for any dark crevasses and bottomless pits. They'll help guide you deep underground where the better stuff is (I find Redstone to be wholly overrated, which is painful given I run into it more often than Iron at the lower levels).

---

I decided to go mining again since my triple demise this weekend. I ended running into a decent cache of diamonds (4) in some new territory and decided to craft a pickaxe to mine some obsidian. I then mastered a technique to prevent mined obsidian from dropping into the burning lava that was usually below it. I mined over 50 blocks, with plenty of opportunity to get more should I want. I should probably look into making a quick entrance/exit to the magma flows, so long as I can figure out where the hell it would exit above ground (lest I ruin my glorious landscape).

Also I found my first dungeon. Hilariously, it was just 50 yards from a base camp of the first crevasse I explore (and apparently one of the quite rare above sea-eve ones!). Nothing to special in there (some saddles for riding pigs!) but I may look into making a monster trap.

I find the Iron Ore to be criminally uncommon in this game, particularly for something that is common in so many middle-to-high quality recipes. I was calculating that to make a 50 tiles of track (which isn't a lot of distance) requires over four and half stacks of iron ingots. In all the time I've playing I haven't completed three.

I thought so too, genearlly when i do find iron its only blocks of 3/4, not close to enough.
I've hit a good run of goal lately finding blocks of 10/15 close to home.

Originally Posted by The Final Dakar

My best advice for you is to go exploring and look for any dark crevasses and bottomless pits. They'll help guide you deep underground where the better stuff is (I find Redstone to be wholly overrated, which is painful given I run into it more often than Iron at the lower levels).

Thanks,hopefully i have some luck.
Is it better to mine DOWN or into shafts horizontally?

Originally Posted by The Final Dakar

Also I found my first dungeon. Hilariously, it was just 50 yards from a base camp of the first crevasse I explore (and apparently one of the quite rare above sea-eve ones!). Nothing to special in there (some saddles for riding pigs!) but I may look into making a monster trap.

Dungeon?! I didn't know those existed, let alone contained special items. Do tell more, how do i find such dungeon?